01 · Operator
Who operates Hatena
- Company
- Hatena Co., Ltd.
- Type
- Other bot
- Official docs
- hatena.ne.jp
02 · Behavior
What Hatena does
Hatena-Favicon2 fetches favicons from websites for display in Hatena services. Other Hatena user agents, such as Hatena-Mobile-Gateway, are not documented in detail.
03 · Impact
Why Hatena matters for your site
If you allow it
- Shows your favicon correctly in Hatena services
- Light, infrequent requests
If you block it
- Little benefit outside the Japanese market
04 · Allow
How to allow Hatena
robots.txt
User-agent: Hatena
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Hatena")
Action: Skip › All Super Bot Fight Mode rules
# Also check Security › Bots: "Block AI bots" can block it regardless of robots.txt.WordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Hatena
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "Hatena") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Hatena [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block Hatena
Start with robots.txt. If Hatena keeps showing up in your logs, block it at your CDN or web server.
robots.txt
User-agent: Hatena
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Hatena")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Hatena
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Hatena") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Hatena [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for Hatena
The user agent published by the operator:
Hatena-Favicon2 (http://www.hatena.ne.jp/faq/)07 · Verification
Is it really Hatena?
Hatena’s operator publishes no IP ranges or hostnames, so requests cannot be verified. Treat the user agent as a claim, and watch your logs for unusual request rates.
FAQ
Questions about Hatena
What is Hatena-Favicon2?
It is a fetcher from Hatena Co., Ltd. that retrieves website favicons.
Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026